Hilarious caption on the dog.

Good work as per!

The dog? The dog?

That's Roobarb!!

Brilliant work Scottie. Almost seems a shame to stand on them to get in and out of the car!

I made them a bit shorter than normal to give myself about 9 or 10 inches in front of the seat so I don't have to stand on them!!!

Watch this space and you'll see.

Didn't put all that work into them to trample the buggers flat!!!!

Seat backs
 

Spent the whole day stitching the seat backs together, and making the plastic backing pads to fit them to.

It is a much more difficult task than I first thought,
(seems like the story of this build!)

But I am closer to the end of it.

Just about everything I put on the car, I try to plan so that it removes easily,
the rears seats are no exception. Although he alloy curved seat backs will unscrew, (8 million screws) I have mounted the foam on the plastic bits I originally used as a pattern for the alloy.

They are held in by only 4 bolts with wing nuts for ease of removal.

I have to somehow make the leather fit the curve, and then colour it.

I thought I could do all this in two days, but now I don't think so.

Here's where I'm at now:

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps2aec9447.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps755b068a.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps8e3e28b7.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa7b38a99.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Scottie
They look great. What is this Tetrosyl paint you used? Is it specially for painting leather because it does a good job.

It's for painting cars and other things, but usually I use a"proper" leather colouring agent at around 60 or 70 quid,
but this paint was only £5.99.

As I said I did not actually "paint" the leather, but used the paint to colour it. The difference is in the technique used to apply it.

When I sprayed on the paint, I then worked it into the leather with a brush and rag, so the paint does not "sit" on the surface but is absorbed by the leather.
Like you say it has done a good job.

I have so much leather to experiment on, and I did a lot of dyeing before I finally did the seats.
I scratched and scraped with my thumbnail to try to get the colour to come off, but it wouldn't, as it had been absorbed correctly.

Bit of a long winded answer, but hopefully may help!

Scottie, I can see how you would reach the inboard wingnuts to release the seat backs - but how can you possibly get your arm far enough through the centre opening to release those outboard?

Its quite easy to reach, believe me!

Wonder how many others panicked and grabbed for their gas mask when you posted the 'red red red' comment...

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps948fa0c4.jpg

Great job on the upholstery btw, it's the one job I (mostly) farmed out to a pro. as my last attempt at trimming left me glued to the inside of a vw beetle. :(

Thanks Mr T.
I'm having major problems trying to do the seat backs!!
Not even sure if its do-able its that difficult right now!
I'll persevere...........

Check out the American customer car upholstery How To videos. I remember on once showing how to upholster a convex seat back but can find the link. Be ready to watch a lot of dross as well though

I'll do that WCA,
however, convex is easy, concave, another story!

Convex seat back - concave seat front

It was like sitting inside 2/3rds of an eggshell

Professionals tackled mine by covering the back and sides first, glueing the leather over thin foam, then adding a 'floating' centre section that runs from top to bottom. Hope you can see what I mean from these pics -

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...ion/003-49.jpg

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...psf719136b.jpg

And very nice too! I see how they've done it, but I don't think it will help me as I have already stitched up what I want, ( so don't have the option they had)
And I have to make what I already have look half reasonable when its in place!
It will be awkward, but I now know its do-able, which in my case is most of the battle over. Just gotta do it now!

Seat saga
 

My aim today was to finish the drivers rear seat back.

It proved far too difficult to finish in a day, but I made slow progress.

At least I did move forward. The passengers one will be faster and easier, as I will know exactly what to do, whereas now I am learning as I go, blind leading the blind and all that stuff!

Just two pics:

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps168ab3cb.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa918df1d.jpg[/IMG]

Scottie - It does sound like you are having a complete nightmare.

However, it also sounds like you are going to do whatever it takes to get the job done properly.

It is already clear that these seats are going to be one of the stand out features of your car.

So stick with it and based on your previous work, I know that you will end up doing a great job.

Good luck, Paul. :)

Kind words Paul!

Think I need that right now!
What a pain these seats are!

It will be a compromise I think, but isn't everything?

Whatever they look like they will be comfortable that's for sure!

Seat saga.
 

The aim today was the same as yesterday, which was to finish the drivers rear seat back and get it red.

Today I achieved that. Considering that I had never before designed and made seats from scratch, its not bad for a first attempt.

Similar to the seat bases, its not perfect, and has creases and a few bumps, But by and large I am reasonably pleased with it.

I will tackle the passengers one another day!

Just about had a gut-ful of seats right now.

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps05911db1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...psde869028.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps81a78134.jpg[/IMG]